Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Our Weekend: Anchang Village

Korean flag amidst the rubble in Anchang Village

After weeks of dodging sneezes escaping from little mouths and pushing away the spluttering children that greet us in the hallways, the sickness bug finally bit me. Typically, it coincided with Tasha's sister, Emily, arriving from the UK. Therefore this weekend was a mix of lots of sleeping and sipping lemon tea, followed by meals out at night, drinks and dancing so that Emily could see what Busan was all about.

On Sunday I found myself drinking the aforementioned amazing lemon tea, wearing a new thick knitted jumper I picked up from Seomyeon underground shopping centre, whilst surrounded by cats at the With Cat Cat Cafe. Definitely one of my favourite places in Busan.

On Saturday Nick and I followed the advice of Busan Awesome and went to visit Anchang Village. This used to be a refugee camp in the Korean war and has turned into a permanent residency for those hardy Koreans who Nick commented must be 'built like a mountain goat' . There's no other explanation as to how someone would be able to live every day life up such an incline. It was quiet and peacful and the chilly Autumn windswept leaves were the only things moving down the tight, brightly painted alleyways. There was the odd fat cat sat on a rooftop that would stare at you even more unashamedly than the locals. It was a strangely eerie place to be and it wasn't quite what either of us were expecting. All along the main road were pieces of grafitti and art work that stood out, yet fitted in pefectly there. And every now and again you would get a glimpse between the teeny one room houses of the high rises that I've started to associate with Busan.

Saturday night we went to see Tasha's favourite local band, Enter Busandman, a Metallica tribute band. They were playing in Vinyl Underground, and I was a bit gutted to arrive a little late to miss the ska band Onedropeast, who I've only managed to catch once before.

So after my cat filled weekend my cold's took a turn for the worse and the last two days has been a blur of working and sleeping, with the odd interruption of an ice cream being delievered by Nick, an unexpected but very welcome surprise! I just want to get back to normal for our trip to the DMZ this weekend.

I didn't take many photos this weekend, but here are a few of the snaps from Anchang Village: